This invention relates to toy racing cars and other vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to toy racing cars, trucks, and motorcycles having improved realism and better play value than prior toy racing equipment.
The prior art shows numerous types of toy and model racing cars, trucks, and motorcycles adapted to run on tracks. Typically such xe2x80x9cslot carsxe2x80x9d have a guide pin or fin extending downwardly into a groove or xe2x80x9cslotxe2x80x9d formed in the track, which is commonly molded in plastic and provided in sectional, snap-together form. Such slot cars are typically propelled by DC motors driving their rear wheels. The motors are connected to xe2x80x9cpick-up shoesxe2x80x9d that slide along the upper surfaces of conductors disposed on or slightly proud of the track surface, on either side of the groove; the current supplied is varied to control the speed of the slot car. As far as known to the present inventors, any body provided (i.e., to resemble a particular model of car, truck or motorcycle) is normally intended to be fixed to the chassis which carries the motor, guide pin or fin, drive wheels, and pick-up shoes.
It is generally understood that the small size of the popular HO scale toy racing cars, e.g., as sold by Mattel Corporation, limits their toy value in several significant ways. One is simply that the small size of the toys makes it harder to see them than is the case with larger models, particularly given their very high speeds. Larger scale cars provide better play value, and of course these have been and are still available. Larger scale cars also provide more surface area for colorful paint schemes, simulating actual race cars that may be marketed as collector""s items, and so forth. However, larger scale cars and their track cost more and take up much more space, and so the HO scale cars retain their popularity. There is also a large xe2x80x9cinstalled basexe2x80x9d of preexisting HO scale track and associated equipment. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide larger cars that could run on existing HO scale track; of course, it would be trivial to make the cars slower, increasing their visibility, but heretofore there has been no suggestion of any way to make them larger and still allow them to run on HO scale track, particularly if they are to be able to overtake one another, as required for realistic racing action.
According to the present invention, larger-scale xe2x80x9cvisible carsxe2x80x9d are supported by xe2x80x9csub bodiesxe2x80x9d comprising drive chassis corresponding to smaller-scale cars. The visible cars are not fixed or mounted to the sub bodies. Instead, each visible car simply rests on the corresponding sub body, and is retained loosely thereon. Cooperating features formed on the visible car and sub body urge the visible car toward a normal attitude with respect to the sub body. These features may include one or more guide pins mounted on the sub body, which fit loosely within corresponding apertures in a plate fixed with respect to the visible car. In a first embodiment, at least one of the guide pins is conical in shape, and fits within a generally trapezoidal aperture in the plate. The conical shape of the pin cooperates with the trapezoidal aperture so that the visible car can be jostled substantially upwardly and sidewardly with respect to the sub body without being separated therefrom, for example when bumped by another car while racing. When the other car passes, the visible car is guided by the conical pin back into its normal orientation. A second cylindrical guide pin carried by the sub body and cooperating with an arcuate aperture in the plate limits the angular excursion of the visible car with respect to the sub body.
In a slightly modified second embodiment, the forward guide pin has a lower conical portion and an upper cylindrical portion, and again fits into a trapezoidal opening in a plate fixed to the visible car. In this embodiment, the rear guide pin comprises a flexible post, supported near its base by a guide member providing a self-centering action to the visible car, and a cap member fitting into a rectangular opening in the plate fixed to the visible car, and sized so that the visible car has to be rotated and tilted in a specific manner with respect to the sub body in order to remove the visible car from the sub body.
The result is that two racing cars, both occupying more than half the width of the track, can nonetheless pass one another without either being knocked off the track; instead, the visible cars are displaced temporarily with respect to the respective sub bodies, which remain engaged with the guide slot formed in the track surface. The result is exciting, large-scale racing action, with spectacular car-to-car contact.